Disorientation
by Rubeus
Summary: rated for possible swearing soon. Summary: Just a shot at Grove's past and why he is the way he is. And where did they find Leila? Why is Grove so attached to her? Please R&R.
1. Disorientation

_+_Hey there, readers. I was looking for a Grove fanfic... ya know, just to see if they existed. Well, lemme tell ya.. I found two. And they were short, somewhat odd, and kind of pointless, not very well written. So.. I've decided to go into more depth of Grove's character. Explain how he got the way he was, and yadda yadda. Can't say this'l turn out better, but here we are anyway. I hope you enjoy.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own VHD or VHD Bloddlust. Just borrowing the characters out of boredom. Hope you don't mind terribly.  
  
I looked over the ruins of a city, in the middle of a desert. It was quite depressing. The buildings lamented their former owners, and called for repair, which they would never get. There was one particular building, however, that caught my attention. It was so familiar, but barely recognizable because of it's condition, and the distance I viewed it at. It was the house I was born in. We used to live in this village, and now that we had come back, we saw that it had been reduced to this...  
  
I looked back to Kyle, who seemed just as distraught as I was. Borgoff seemed to have expected it. He turned on his heel, shrugged, and headed back to the tank.  
  
"C'mon. We're gonna lose our game. Looks like we can't stop for suppiles here." he said dumbly, as he disappeared from view over the hill.  
  
Kyle and I stood for a few minutes longer, staring out at the desert that used to be our home. Was this all really the work of vampires? Famine? Did the village just... burn to the ground one night? I suddenly got the impression that there was a universal feeling of abandonment and displacement... we had nowhere to go, nowhere to belong anymore. No one spoke it, but I knew that we all felt it. Nolt hadn't even bothered to come out of the tank. I guess he knew what to expect as well.  
  
Soon Kyle sighed, as if speaking a quick eulogy, and turned back towards the tank. I saw him go and decided to follow... it was getting chilly anyway. ******  
  
"It's two days until the next town, Borgoff!! Whadda'we gonna do?" Kyle frowned, looking at our rapidly depleting water and food supply. "I'm gettin' really thirsty... just a few glasses a day isn't enough to sustain us through this wasteland!" He said, and waited for response from Borgoff.  
  
"Look, we're just gonna have to tough it through. If we go non-stop, we can probably get to the next village before tomorrow night, so don't worry about it. We'll be all right."  
  
I sighed and rolled my eyes, leaning back into a metal chair in the corner of the tank. Kyle always had a problem with complaining. It wasn't that long, and we had enough to last us until then. I looked to the half-full seven-gallon drum of water, and my throat felt suddenly chapped. I bit my lip, thinking that I hadn't had any water in the past day...  
  
Kyle seemed to be staring at the water as well. He reluctantly pulled his eyes away, and walked to the front of the tank. "I'll drive tonight, Borgoff... You've been driving for the past few days, and you're cranky, and I don't like it." He said as-a-matter-of-factly. "Borgoff needs naptime."  
  
Borgoff frowned, and slapped the back of his head.  
  
"At least I'm not as dumb as you."  
  
He walked to the back of the tank where I was, and fell down in a corner where he had left his sleeping bag. He was snoring within minutes. I laughed silently to myself, and looked to Nolt, who was asleep as well. We had all been awake for two days straight, hunting a group of vampires that were notorious for abducting young women from villages. We had been offered $1,000,000 for each head we brought back. There were seven vampires all together. It wasn't that much, but it was enough. We gave the village that hired us some slack.. They all seemed to be wearing rags. But we had lost track of the game, and now we were lost in this desert, trying to find our way and and survive in the process. It was quite difficult. We weren't that worried about the bounty heads at this point, however, because they probably got stuck in the middle of nowhere too, and fried in the sun. They didn't seem to be very smart vampires. They traveled by foot, which was particularily dangerous, especially if you got stuck where no shade was availabe, and you couldn't bury yourself in time.  
  
I went searching through a bag that sat by my chair, and fished out a small comb. Unlike Kyle, I believed in grooming. I ran it through my red hair. Yes, my hair used to be red. Kyle and I were from the same parents; Borgoff and Nolt had been born to different fathers...Our mother was quick promiscuous. I put the comb back in the back, and searched for a bottle of mouthwash I had carried along. Upon finding it, I took a swig, gargled, swished, and spat out the window. That just made me thirstier. I moaned somewhat, and twisted uncomfortably in my seat, turning my head away from the water.  
  
Maybe sleeping would help. I went and lay down on a cot with a few blankets I had set up across from Borgoff. I curled up, and hugged myself, slowly drifting off into an uneasy sleep...  
  
Kyle awoke us with a start. He ran onto the tank screaming something about sunlight and a patch of sand, or something... I sat up, looking at him oddly.  
  
"What the hell are you talking about?" I moaned, and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. He always had a way of waking us up abruptly with odd ramblings of nonsensical jibberish.  
  
"The vampires!! I found where they buried themselves!"  
  
"..What?" Borgoff jumped up, and ran over to Kyle.  
  
"Where??" He took him by the shoulders.  
  
"Outside. Come on! I almost ran over them!"  
  
I stood, and reluctantly kicked Nolt awake. We grabbed our weaponry, and headed out after Kyle and Borgoff.  
  
The spot was right in front of the tank. One of the stupid things hadn't buried itself all the way and had burned to death. Other than that, you could barely tell there was anything there. Borgoff got on his knees and started digging, soon revealing another, who awoke to the unpleasant sensation of fire spreading over his body. He screamed and writhed, desperately trying to pull himself out, or bury himself again... we really couldn't tell what he was trying to do. He had probably lost all sense from the shock. He soon fell over; a smoldering lump of flesh.  
  
"Wow, Go Kyle!" Borogff said. "Grove, go get a shovel. We really won't need to worry about fighting them now, will we?" He laughed, and kicked aside the charred bodies.  
  
I ran back to the tank, feeling quite dizzy. I stopped momentarily as my head swam, and ran the back of my hand across my forehead. It was beaded with sweat. I shook my head, and my vision returned to normal. I didn't have to search long; there was a shovel left carelessly by the driver's seat. Why it was there, I didn't know. We hadn't used the thing in the past two months. I picked it up, and ran it back to Borgoff. I was feeling quite nauseous at this point, but I figured it was probably from the excitement. We thought that they were long gone; either dead somewhere behind us, or alive and well far ahead of us.  
  
Kyle, Nolt and I stood and watched, as Borgoff unearthed one after the other, each doing nonsensical things to try and keep from burning. One even got up and ran in circles for a few minutes, and commenced to stick its head in the sand before completely burning to death.  
  
Kyle was on his knees laughing, begging Borgoff to stop, otherwise he'd have a heart attack. I couldn't keep from laughing either. Never had we seen any vampires that did such bizarre things to keep from burning in the sunlight. These ones seemed to be just brainless zombies, or something... they probably were newly created vampires, who hadn't yet acquired full survival skills, and regained complete sense from their human selves.  
  
Borgoff went to unearth a sixth, and that's when it hit me. Black spots were bombarding my vision. I keeled over momentarily, and then reeled backwards, trying desperately not to fall down. No one seemed to notice. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was a vampire with long brown hair, trying to scramble back into the earth; the most sensible thing any of them had done yet. 


	2. Apparition

_+_Yay! Next chapter of GROVE!! ...disorientation, rather.I hope you like....Oh yeah, this kind of switches from 1st to 3rd person here and there... I mean, Grove can't tell the story when he's unconcious, can he... right...? Just don't get confused._+_  
  
I awoke... I'm not sure how much later. But however long I was alseep, they had time to move a real bed into the tank, and put me onto it. I felt so weak.. and hungry. I tried to sit up, only for gravity to pull me painfully back down. I winced in pain. What the hell was wrong with me? Had I broken something? I saw Kyle asleep in my little chair that was in the corner. No on else seemed to be around. Weakly, I called out to him.  
  
"Kyle?"  
  
He grumbled, and sat up, glaring at me.  
  
"You woke me up from my nap."  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
He shook his head, and squinted his eyes at me accusingly, it seemed. He stood and stretched, and paced around the tank a few times to wake himself up. He smiled with what seemed relief, and sat down on the bed next to me.  
  
"So, you made it man... we thought you'd never wake up."  
  
I looked at him the way a puppy does who wants to be taken home, only with a bit more confusion.  
  
"What happened, Kyle?"  
  
He bit his lip. "That, well, I can't accurately say. You passed out the day we found those vampires in the desert, and we rushed you to the nearest town. They said it was dehydration at first. They gave you an IV with some water, but you didn't wake up, in fact you seemed to get worse..."  
  
He looked up at the ceiling, as if the explanation were up there somewhere.  
  
"You started to get really thin, no matter what we did. They said it was probably a flesh eating virus of some sort, and that you might not wake up. They told us to take you home and make you comfortable. And well, that's where we are now.. kind of. Of course, I can't say this tank is home."  
  
I narrowed my eyes, not really believing it. Me? That sick? I was always so healthy. I never got sick, unless I had eaten something bad. I lifted up the light blankets that rest over me, and saw that my body had reduced itself to skin and bone. I gasped, and fell backward with a hand clutched to my mouth, trying to keep from crying.  
  
"So, I'm going to die??" I asked quietly, the question muffled through my fingers.  
  
A look of pain spread across Kyle's face. That look that people get when they don't have the heart to tell them. Grove knew that look. It was the look that mother had given father when he had asked the same thing.. He had stomach cancer, and asked if he was going to die. Of course, he knew the answer. I suppose he needed confirmation.  
  
I bit my lip, and turned away from him to face the well.  
  
"It's okay. I know the answer. Just......go now, okay?"  
  
I heard Kyle about to say something he stopped, and placed a hand on my shoulder.  
  
"Look, you're gonna pull through. I know it. The doctors said you weren't even supposed to wake up."  
  
"Just go."  
  
He breathed in deep through his nose, and stodd.  
  
"Okay Grove, I'll leave you alone for awhile. I'll be outside, just, call if you need anything."  
  
I didn't answer. I closed my eyes, trying to get out of this nightmare. One minute I was healthy and watching vampires burn, the next, it was...god only knows how many days or weeks later, and I was told that I was dying.  
  
I looked down to my arm, and saw several IVs poking out of it. I sighed in disgust and quickly wrenched them out of my wiry and tossed them aside. I felt the drowsiness take me over again. I let myself fall into it; If was going to die, I might as well and just get it over with.  
  
******  
  
Borgoff poked his head around the corner cautiously. There were... two gaurding him. One was a woman. The vampire sat in his velvet chair, drinking a glass of what looked like red wine, but Borgoff knew full well what it was. He saw the body of a young man, carelessly discarded into a corner.  
  
This was their new prey, who had become more of a problem than they had expected. Some ancient with powers they had never experienced. Healius Mestrok. A ruthless killer who had taken a merciless stronghold of fear on the all the surrounding cities and villages. No one ever went out at night, let alone day. They seemed to think his hunters were everywhere, looking for some poor victim to pick out.  
  
Borgoff loaded his crossbow as silently as he could, and aimed it to his head, slowly. This probably wouldn't kill him, but it would sure as hell hurt, and most possibly make their task easier. Nolt was on the other side of the room, ready to take on the lackeys.  
  
Healius looked up, and smiled.  
  
"Lekia, my dear, we have guests. Would you like to show them in?"  
  
"Certainly." She said curtly, and gave a quick bow, and looked over to Borgoff smiling. Without him knowing what was happening, the two had dissapeared momentarily, and then he knew where they had gone. The young woman was on top of Borgoff, clawing at his throat ferociously. She pulled a dagger from under her skirt, and smiled as she tried to place it to Borgoff's neck. He growled, and shot an arrow through her neck.  
  
"Go to hell, you fucking little witch!!!" He screamed. She lurched back momentarily in pain, and then laughed.  
  
"Oh, you humans are rich!!"  
  
Borgoff jumped up, and backed away slowly. With each step he took, she took another closer.  
  
"Now, really... I can't have you harming the man that I was hired to protect, now can I?"  
  
Borgoff narrowed his eyes. So the damn bastard was aware of his bounty. The people who had hired them said that it was totally anonymous. But.. who could trust the word of a bunch of paranoid twittery people who probably weren't in their right minds as it was?  
  
Borgoff heard a light twinking noise. Apparently, so had everyone else. Everyone had frozen in confusion, and was looking around desperately for the source of the sound. It grew louder, and the image of an ethereal being whipped around the corner, smiling. He spread his arms out wide, and unleashed a torrent of light upon Healius. Borgoff heard him scream, and then that was that. Lekia and the other had bounded to their master, only to be shot down themselves.  
  
"It's Grove!!" Nolt shouted from across the room.  
  
"What are you talking about?? Don't get near it!!" Borgoff screamed back. "I'll take care of it!" He shot out a barrage of arrows at the figure. They went straight through without appearing to do any damage. But then the apparition froze, and dispersed.  
  
******  
  
I awoke in severe pain. My throat had seemed to constrict itself. I clawed desperately to the air, gasping for breath. Kyle ran into the tank upon hearing my gasps, or chokes, or whatever sound I had been making.  
  
"Grove!!" He ran to my side, not sure what to do. He picked me up in his arms and held me tight.  
  
"Shit, Grove, Don't do this!!"  
  
I gasped a few more times, and felt myself calm down. My throat relaxed, and I was able to take painful whooping gasps for air. Kyle was holding me close, shaking with fear.  
  
"It's all right. That's right, you're going to be okay, I promise. I promise, I promise..."  
  
I rested my head against him, and felt his heart hammering in his chest. Eventually, he started to calm down too. I coughed and felt really drowsy. Maybe I should sleep again.. I fell limp in arms, and before dropping off into uneasy slumber, I mumbled something that I don't really understand why I asked it. It was just a dream right? I asked anyway.  
  
"Borgoff... was hunting this vampire, and I saved him, but he shot me. Why did he shoot me, Kyle?" I asked quietly, and fell alseep.  
  
****** 


	3. Discovery

Borgoff's stepped onto the tank, his heavy boots clanking loudly. He froze when he saw Kyle holding Grove and shaking.  
  
"Everythig all right?" He asked, quietly. Nolt stepped on behind him, dragging a bloody corpse, a vampire that used to be Healius Mestrok.  
  
"Yeah. I don't know .." Kyle replied, and gently lay the snoozing Grove back down on the cot. He saw the body of the vampire, and smiled ruefully.  
  
"Looks like you got him." Kyle said and stood, stretching.  
  
"Yeah, but the craziest thing happened," Nolt said, and tossed the body aside into a random corner. He threw a few blankets over it, and sat down into a chair, glancing at it as if it would jump up and run away.  
  
"No kiddin. This spirit thing came and shot the crap out of 'im and his lackeys. We'd probably both be dead right now if it weren't for that weird thing." Borgoff said and went to sit in the driver's seat.  
  
"The scarier part is, that it looked a lot like Grove," Nolt laughed. "But it couldn't have been, I mean, he's still here."  
  
Kyle froze.  
  
"Wait .. did Borgoff happen to shoot it?"  
  
"Yeah, how'd you know?"  
  
Kyle looked slowly over to Grove, suddenly getting the impression that his young brother wasn't really sick.  
  
"Hey look guys.. I don't think Grove is sick."  
  
"He looks pretty sick to me." Nolt scoffed.  
  
"No no, I mean, he is but. Look, I read about this weird archaic power a long time ago. It takes your physical energy while increasing your spiritual abilities, so you can do stuff like. spiritual projection. I don't know what exactly it is, but. I mean, he woke up gasping for air and stuff, and I thought he was dying but .."  
  
Kyle licked his lips. They were parched from his nervousness. Was his little brother really something like that? No one replied. Once again, the both acted as if they knew that's the way it was, as if it had always been that way before. Finally, Borgoff spoke as if nothing was out of the oridinary.  
  
"So you really think that Grove has archaic power, huh?"  
  
Kyle nodded vigourisly, and went to sit up in front near Borgoff. "Yeah, but I don't think he can control it."  
  
"Hmm. looks like our next stop after collecting the bounty is an archaic mage, or something. Anyone knows where to find one of those?"  
  
******  
  
Borgoff looked skeptically down at the little bottle with white, opaqe liquid in it. The mage had put a syringe, and a box of blue bottles in front of him.  
  
"So, if I make him drink this."  
  
"Then he will be able to control his spiritual projections." Interuppted the mage. He leaned over, not without grunting a little, and fetched up a blue bottle and the syringe. "But only if you inject this into him. When his heart stops, he will become something with unimaginable power, but he can only do it for a few minutes, otherwise his body will die, and his spirit will be at constant unrest."  
  
The hunters looked to one another skeptically.  
  
"Look, we'll give it a shot, but if you're ripping us off, we won't hesitate to burn your happy store to the ground."  
  
"Fine." Said the main, as a matter-of-factly. "No worries here. My products are garunteed." He wandered away, and began sorthing throught a pile of scepters with runes ungraved into their surfaces. Kyle sighed, and placed the money on the counter, and promptly left. Borgoff and Nolt fetched up the materials, loaded them onto the tank, and headed off to buy some medical supplies.  
  
"Don't forget oxygen!" Kyle called after them. Borogoff waved, and walked off into the city with Nolt.  
  
******  
  
I awoke when Kyle stepped onto the tank and kicked tripped over something, swearing loudly.  
  
"Must you swear so much?" I asked weakly, turning on my back painfully.  
  
"Sorry." Said Kyle dumbly.  
  
I propped myself up on one elbow, and mustered a somewhat uninterested and rueful smile. "So what happened while I was under?"  
  
Kyle stopped, and looked him wide eyed. "Oh, you don't remember?"  
  
"No, Kyle. I was asleep. Don't you remember?" Kyle rolled his eyes.  
  
"Remember when you woke up, and said that Borgoff shot you or something?"  
  
"Yeah, I think."  
  
"Well, I guess you have archaic powers or something." Kyle shrugged, as if it weren't important. He sat on one of the boxes of blue bottles, and cracked his knuckles and neck.  
  
"What. are you talking about?"  
  
"Oh well, I guess you can project your spirit, but you can't control it or something. Oh, that reminds me." He said, and sifted through one of the boxes. "Here we go." He pulled out a bottle of white liquid that somewhat looked like milk, and tossed it to me.  
  
"You gotta drink this. It's supposed to help with your power."  
  
I blinked down, thinking that I had gone totally insane, and decided to drink the liquid. It wouldn't do any harm if I were insane, right? I twisted the cap off, and downed the small vial with one swig.  
  
"Sweet." I said, and tossed the vial aside.  
  
"It's madde from the milk of yucca plants, or something.. I don't think it's yucca plants, but that's close enough." Kyle shrugged, and picked up the bottle, and tossed it out the open door. I sat up, in a bit pain, but decided that I was much better.  
  
"How long was I asleep, Kyle?" I asked, curiosity suddenly striking me.  
  
"Oh, a couple of weeks."  
  
"So. when's the last time I bathed?" I asked, suddenly feeling very dirty.  
  
"I-I don't know!" Kyle laughed, and went to help me up. "Why don't we go find a bath house, huh?"  
  
******  
  
After walking for awhile, I decided that I wasn't going to do this again. I was still far too weak, and I got way too exhausted with just breathing. But after getting into a hot bath, I felt tons better. Maybe bathing was the cure to this "power". I slowly crawled out of the single person room and into a changing room. (I got a single person room because I was embarassed of my appearance. Of course, who woulnd't be, when they were so skinny that they looked like something dead that had floated up from a quarry?) I pulled on a terry-cloth robe, and brushed gently through my hair. I hadn't looked in the mirror until now. I walked over, and looked in, not recognizing myself for a minute, and thinking that I was looking at someone else through a window. When the stranger imitated my moves, I gasped, and stumbled backwards. My hair was gray, not the brilliant red like Kyle's that it used to be. I had huge bags under my eyes. and I looked twenty years older than I did, and I was only twenty-seven.  
  
I fell back weakly onto a stool, and tried not to cry, my chest heaving. That couldn't have been me. I used to look like Kyle with a rounder face and groomed hair! I brought my hands to my face, and pulled my legs tight into my chest, just letting myself cry. I hadn't let myself cry since I had awoken, but now I just couldn't help it. I heard the door open, and a young voice of a woman call out. It was a throaty, crouped voice, and yet it was gentle all the same. I stayed silent, trying not to sob, and waited for her to come around the corner.  
  
"I was told to check on you." The voice said again. The figure of a voluptious, yet lanky woman appeared around the corner. She wore the uniform of all the people that worked here, and it seemed oddly out of place on her. I looked up, and wiped the tears from my eyes. Her hair was shoulder length then, and tied into two braids on the side of her head. She smiled smugly, and placed a hand on her hip.  
  
"So, you're brothers are vampire hunters, are they?"  
  
I nodded slowly, not sure what to say.  
  
She raised an eyebrow, and came to sit next to me.  
  
"What's wrong with you?" She asked, gently, wiping an unoticed tear from my bony cheek.  
  
"I." I stammered, still not sure what to say.  
  
She smiled, and pat me gently on the back.  
  
"We're partners now, you know that?"  
  
My eyes widened in shock.  
  
"W-what?" I asked in surprise, not sure what to make of what she had said.  
  
"I said we're partners. I talked it over with one of your brothers. The big hairy one that was really frightening and headstrong. It took a lot of convincing."  
  
I couldn't think of what to say. I stammered, and finally came up with something to say.  
  
"Wh-Why do you want to be a hunter so bad?"  
  
Her eyes narrowed, and she smiled, but it came out rueful.  
  
"I have my reasons."  
  
I suddenly got serious, and tried to sound as manly as possible.  
  
"It's no occupation for a young woman, you know. I don't think even men should do it."  
  
She raised an eyebrow at me accusingly, and punched me softly in the arm.  
  
"Don't think I can do it, do you?"  
  
"No no no, I never said that." I said, and figeted with my robe belt.  
  
"Whatever." She shrugged, and then extended a hand to me.  
  
"I'm Leila." She said.  
  
I reluctantly took her hand, and smiled, shaking as strongly as I could, but it still turned out to be a dead fish handshake. Blushing somewhat, I introduced myself.  
  
"My name is Grove Markus." I said, and stood weakly. "You can tell Kyle I'm okay. I just need to go back to the tank and get some sleep."  
  
She nodded and left. "Well, I gotta go tell my boss I quit and get out of this ridiculous uniform. She strode out proudly, and the door shut softly behind her.  
  
_+_Leila? Working in a bathouse? Wow, I didn't even expect that. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed it. More coming! _+_ 


	4. Angels of Plaster

_+_ Yay, yet another chapter. I wonder when I am going to end it? o_0 whateva'. Enjoy. _+_  
  
So, Leila had joined our group. From what Kyle had told me, her family was the victims of vampires, and that her mother had been kidnapped, and when her father went to rescue her, he was killed. Her mother had come back, but she had been changed, and the people in the village stoned her to death, right in front of her. She said she wanted to be a hunter to avenge her family. I really didn't see that happening in the near future, as I watched out the window as Borgoff desperately tried to teach her how to properly shoot a gun. She was clumsy, and she was an eyesore. I really didn't like her... at first. I felt like our family had been invaded.  
  
When she fell backwards and the gun flew out of her hands when she shot it, Borgoff threw his hands up in the air and walked off muttering something about letting women do a man's job. I smiled. This wouldn't last long. Before I knew it, she'd be gone, and I wouldn't have to worry about it. She bit her lip and stood, putting away the gun and some other weapons Borgoff had tried to teach her how to use. She pulled open the heavy door to the tank (not without falling backwards, of course,) and walked on rubbing her temples as if she had been the one teaching herself.  
  
"You think I can do this, Grove?" She asked, staring out the window across from me.  
  
I smiled, and lied through my teeth.  
  
"Sure. You just need some practice. I used to be really bad myself."  
  
She turned and smiled at me. "You think so?"  
  
"Sure, why not?"  
  
She smiled, and came to sit next to me.  
  
"Look, why don't I take you out? I have some money left from the bathhouse. You're always stuck in this bed, and everyone avoids you like you have the plague. C'mon. You can walk, right?"  
  
I rolled my eyes and nodded, suddenly dreading this. I wasn't too weak by this point, so I shakily stood, and slipped on a pair of boots next to my bed. At least those still fit. She helped me stand and walked me off the tank, as if I were crippled or elderly.  
  
"Yo, Borgoff?"  
  
I heard him sigh disdainfully. "Yeah, Leila?"  
  
"I'm gonna take Grove out for awhile, okay? Get him some clothes that fit."  
  
"Good. He needs to get out once in awhile. It'll probably be good for him." I heard him laugh.  
  
Kyle appeared from around the corner laughing as well. "Hey, if you can't fight with us, you can be our maid!"  
  
She rolled her eyes, and we started off towards the city, which was just about a three-minute walk. We were camped outside of the city of Abrial, waiting for another bounty opportunity to show itself. Abrial was a city that was constantly in fear of vampire and demon attacks, because it was thirty or forty miles away from the village of the Barboroi. They had been isolated for years, but those animals had just recently started to show themselves, terrorizing and feeding off of humans like vampires did. We figured someone would ask for help sooner or later, once it was known that the famous Markus brothers were here.  
  
She took me out to lunch, first off, to get some energy into me. It was okay; buttered Parmesan noodles and broccoli and cheddar soup were never my favorite, but it was a good meal nonetheless. Then we made our way to a men's clothing shop, where she bought me lots of scarves for some reason (which I grew quite attached to), pair of white pants and a few sweaters. I put them on the minute we got them; I was sick of walking around and looking like I was playing dress-up in big brother's clothing. Then, she said she had some business to take care of (to this day, I still don't know what it was. She said something about someone owing her money) and set me loose on the village, telling me to meet her at the church. I had nothing else to do, so I just went and waited in one of the empty pews. Despite the fear this city always seemed to be under, the church was oddly abandoned. Dust and cobwebs had claimed it as their own, spiders and other insects had conquered and ruled the land. As I scanned the ruins of this house of worship, I saw alabaster images of saints in the corners of the ceilings, peering down and looming over the area, as if to keep a judgmental yet protective eye. The windows were stained glass, depicting Lord Jesus Christ, and the angels: Michael, Gabriel, and the banishment of Lucifer. The walls were made of marble, and the pews of red cherry wood. They had velvet cushions on the seat and back. I wondered why such a place had gone abandoned, maybe humanity had lost their faith, but I guess, who wouldn't in a world like this? In a world where evil ruled, and where vampires didn't fear crosses and holy object as they once did. The cross, it seemed, hadn't lost it's effect entirely. Vampires had just learned o ignore it. But what caught my attention was the front of the church. In the right corner, there was a piano. I stood, and slowly walked over to it. Before we had the ambition to go off killing vampires, I had been learning how to play the piano and had written a few pieces. I hadn't played in years; I wondered if I still could.  
  
After brushing off what seemed an inch of dust, I settled slowly onto the bench, trying to keep myself from falling over. I pushed the cover from the keys up and over. The keys were dustless, and to my surprise, nothing tried to leap out and attack me. I poked at one of the keys, and smiled when it produced the tune that it was supposed to. Judging by the rest of the church, I figured it probably would scream, whine and run away when I touched it. After doing a few warm-ups that seemed to come mechanically, I started to play, and everything came back.  
  
Dad's stomach cancer, mother's depression, our stepfather's gambling/drug problem, my healthy body. Gods, I just wanted to be normal. I didn't ant to be a withered cretin! I banged the keys loudly and fell over sobbing. My child life was never horrible, but it just wanted to make me cry now. It was so painfully depressing to think that I would probably be bed ridden for the rest of my life. Maybe I wouldn't be, but the last time I used that power, (unintentionally) I just got weaker. I didn't tell anyone, and it was no doubt that they would want to use my power over and over again. I realized how childish I must seem, sobbing over a dusty piano in an old church. It was like I was in my hiding place, crying so no one would see me. I sat up and sniffled, rubbing the tears from my eyes. I started to play again, and to my surprise, it all just once again came mechanically. This time I played something faster paced, yet depressing. It sounded like the mind of a genius, I thought. Of course, that's just me. Sorrowful, beautiful and fast paced. I slowed down a bit, and it started to sound like something that might be played at a funeral. Before I knew it, I was playing the song I had played at my father's funeral. I bit my lip, trying not to cry, and kept playing.  
  
I hadn't even noticed that Leila had been at the back of the church for quite some time, propping her body up against the doorframe. She was smiling ruefully, her arms crossed over her chest. I didn't even recognize her at first; It looked as if she had done some shopping herself. She had bought herself a gun with a fancy leather holster, and a skin-tight red ensemble. She had cut her hair to look like a man's , and it fit her better. Once I finished the lament for my father, I sighed, and started to play something again, but she quickly spoke, as if to keep me from playing more.  
  
"I didn't know you could play."  
  
I jumped up in shock. "I-I'm sorry, I." I quickly closed the cover, and walked up to her. "Okay, let's go back now, I'm sorry. I shouldn't."  
  
She looked at me confused and laughed. "What the hell are you apologizing for?"  
  
I opened my mouth to speak with a perfectly valid reason, than realized I had none.  
  
"I don't know." I said, and sighed.  
  
"It was beautiful, you know. You don't have to be embarrassed. You really have some talent."  
  
I blushed, and smiled shyly.  
  
"It was the song I played for my father at his funeral."  
  
"It was really beautiful. I'm sure he loved it."  
  
I nodded slowly, and looked down to the floor, still blushing bright.  
  
"Well, let's get back to the tank, okay?" She pulled me close to her side and hugged me tight.  
  
"But first, I just want you to know, that no matter what you think, you're not ugly. I've seen you sometimes crying to yourself about it. I think you're beautiful, really. And you are a wonderful person. You really are."  
  
I looked up in shock, wondering why she was telling me this.  
  
She smiled.  
  
"Well, come on."  
  
******  
  
So, I guess she was the first one to really show some true sympathy to me. Maybe Kyle did once in awhile, but he was my brother, and all in all, it wasn't as genuine as Leila's. Sure, he cared, and I knew that, but he never told me that I was a wonderful person and not to worry about how I looked, and that I was a wonderful person.Sure, Leila was headstrong and a bit annoying at times, but I guess that she was the first person I really, well. really loved. Of course, I never told her. She may have said I was beautiful, but she might have just been saying it to make me feel better. I regret never telling her. Of course, by the time I thought I was going to, along came that Dunpeal hunter. She seemed hopelessly obsessed, and was always chasing after him. Maybe I'm just naïve. She could have just been chasing him to divert him from the carriage. That was probably it, but I think she had something for him. She helped him, I'm sure of it. There was that time that she disappeared for awhile, near lake Chvonne, where that Dunpeal was supposed to be. I can't think what they did, and nor do I want to.  
  
When she arrived, I was relatively strong. Every time I used that supposed archaic power, I just got weaker. I died a little bit every time I used it. But even as I go weaker, Our bond seemed to grow stronger, even with that Dunpeal around. Even if it wasn't the kind of bond I might have wanted, I guess I'm thankful for it. Love who she may, I just wish I had let her know how I felt.  
  
I sacrificed myself for her; I guess that's good enough. That's the best way to say, "I love you", right? Maybe she got the message, maybe she didn't. I just hope the message gets through to her some day.  
  
_+_End!! I think so. I guess so. My sister was rushing me to finish it. I hope this is a good ending. _+_ 


End file.
